British actors
by angelisauce | created - 21 Sep 2020 | updated - 17 Dec 2020 | Public
1. Clare Holman
Actress | Blood Diamond
Clare Holman was born on January 12, 1964 in London, England, UK. She is an actress and director, known for Blood Diamond (2006), Suite Française (2014) and Inspector Lewis (2006). She was previously married to Howard Davies.
2. Kevin Whately
Actor | Inspector Morse
From the age of one, Kevin Whately lived at Humshaugh near Chollerford in Northumberland. At school he appeared in school plays and when he asked his teacher about acting he was told ' You'll never make a proper living', so he joined a Newcastle accountants. Eventually he moved to London where he ...
3. Joanna David
Actress | Pride and Prejudice
Joanna David was born on January 17, 1947 in Lancaster, England, UK. She is an actress and producer, known for Pride and Prejudice (1995), You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010) and Rogue Trader (1999). She has been married to Edward Fox since 2004. They have two children.
4. Laurence Fox
Actor | The Hole
RADA-trained Laurence Fox is the third son of the actor James Fox and his wife Mary. He is a British actor who has appeared in several important films, plays, and television programs.
He is also active in politics, founding a new political party named "Reclaim" in 2020 and he presents an opinion ...
5. Amanda Root
Actress | The Forsyte Saga
Amanda Root is an English stage and screen actress and a former voice actress for children's programs.Root is known for her starring role in the 1995 BBC film adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion, her role in the British TV comedy All About Me, as Miranda, alongside Richard Lumsden in 2004, and ...
6. Amanda Burton
Actress | Marcella
Amanda Burton was born and raised in Derry, Northern Ireland. Leaving aged 18 to train as an actress at Manchester Polytechnic School of Theatre. Amanda has since become one of Britain's most respected and admired actresses often taking on leading strong roles in dramas. She is the mother of two ...
7. Rupert Penry-Jones
Actor | Spooks
Rupert Penry-Jones was born on September 22, 1970 in London, England, UK. He is an actor, known for MI-5 (2002), Match Point (2005) and The Four Feathers (2002). He has been married to Dervla Kirwan since August 2007. They have two children.
8. Hermione Norris
Actress | Spooks
Hermione Norris was born on February 12, 1967 in Paddington, London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for MI-5 (2002), Wire in the Blood (2002) and Cold Feet (1997). She has been married to Simon Wheeler since December 2002. They have two children.
9. Ralf Little
Actor | The Royle Family
Ralf Little was born on February 8, 1980 in Bury, Greater Manchester, England, UK. He is an actor and producer, known for The Royle Family (1998), 24 Hour Party People (2002) and Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps (2001).
10. Victoria Hamilton
Actress | Mansfield Park
Victoria Hamilton is an English actress. After training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Hamilton began her career in classical theatre, appearing in productions with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. In 2002, she appeared in the London stage play A Day in the ...
11. Fiona Shaw
Actress | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1
Shaw was already an accomplished theater actress when director Jim Sheridan awarded her a role in his film, My Left Foot (1989). The film is a telling of Christy Brown (Daniel Day-Lewis), an Irishman disgruntled with his confinement to a body horribly crippled by cerebral palsy but who found ...
12. Robert Glenister
Actor | The Aeronauts
Robert Glenister (born 11 March 1960) is a popular British actor probably best known, among other roles, as con-man Ash "Three Socks" Morgan in the hit British TV series Hustle (2004) and his appearances in MI-5 (2002). His impressive career has spanned nearly three decades, and he has starred in ...
13. Julia Sawalha
Actress | Lark Rise to Candleford
Julia Sawalha was born in London. She has received due honor for her acting talents. Starring as Lynda Day in Press Gang winning the BAFTA award for Best Drama series. She played the role of Saffy in [Absolutely Fabulous 1992-2016], for which she won the RTS award for Best Actress, Lydia Bennett in...
14. Hugh Bonneville
Actor | Downton Abbey
Hugh Bonneville is a British actor, known for his stage work at the National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company as well as the West End. His extensive film and television work includes Twenty Twelve, W1A, Downton Abbey, Paddington, The Gold and I Came By. See his website hughbonneville.uk for ...
15. Phyllis Logan
Actress | Secrets & Lies
Phyllis Logan was born on January 11, 1956 in Paisley, Scotland, UK. She is an actress, known for Secrets & Lies (1996), Another Time, Another Place (1983) and Downton Abbey (2010). She has been married to Kevin McNally since August 15, 2011. They have one child.
16. Brendan Coyle
Actor | Downton Abbey
Brendan Coyle was born in Corby, Northamptonshire to an Irish father and Scottish mother; his parents moved to Corby from County Tyrone, Ireland. Brendan holds Irish citizenship and has previously lived in Dublin and London. However, according to a video clip from the site for "Rockface" he resides...
17. Jim Carter
Actor | Transformers: The Last Knight
Jim Carter was born on August 19, 1948 in Harrogate, Yorkshire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Transformers: The Last Knight (2017), Shakespeare in Love (1998) and Downton Abbey (2019). He has been married to Imelda Staunton since October 1983. They have one child.
18. Michelle Dockery
Actress | Downton Abbey
Michelle Suzanne Dockery (born 15 December 1981) is an English actress and singer. She is best known for her role as Lady Mary Crawley in the ITV drama series Downton Abbey (2010-2015), for which she has been nominated for three consecutive Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. She made her ...
19. Joanne Froggatt
Actress | Downton Abbey
Joanne was born at Littlebeck, Whitby and educated at Eskdale School, Sleights Pimary and Red Roofs Theatrical School, Berkshire, Her first jobs were at Booths Fine Food Cafe and Alexanders Fish Restaurant in Whitby. She made her television debut in The Bill but became well known when she played ...
20. Penelope Wilton
Actress | The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Penelope Wilton was born on June 3, 1946 in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Match Point (2005). She was previously married to Ian Holm and Daniel Massey.
21. Samantha Bond
Actress | GoldenEye
Samantha's early theatre work includes repertory seasons at Coventry, Edinburgh, Derby, and Bristol and 'Never in My Life 'at the Soho Poly in London. After appearing in Kenneth Branagh's production of 'Romeo and Juliet' she went on to West End productions of 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses', 'Man of the...
22. Matthew Goode
Actor | Stoker
Matthew William Goode (born 3 April 1978) is an English actor. His films include Chasing Liberty (2004), Match Point (2005), Imagine Me and You (2006), Brideshead Revisited (2008), Watchmen (2009), A Single Man (2009), Leap Year (2010), Stoker (2013) and The Imitation Game (2014). Goode also ...
23. Robert Bathurst
Actor | Cold Feet
Born West Africa. Lived in Ireland aged 3-9. Convent school. Lied in First Confession aged 6. Sent to satisfactorily brutal boarding school in County Meath. Aged 9 moved to England. Monastery school till 18. Still dodgy in Confession. Aged 13 decided he wanted to be an actor. Didn't own up to this ...
24. Iain Glen
Actor | Game of Thrones
Iain Glen is a Scottish actor, born June 24, 1961, in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was educated at the Edinburgh Academy, an independent school for boys (now co-educational), followed by the University of Aberdeen. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he was the winner of the ...
25. MyAnna Buring
Actress | Kill List
MyAnna Buring was born 22 September 1979, in Sundsvall, Sweden, as MyAnna Margaretha Buring Rantapää, but grew up in the Middle East. When she turned 16, she moved to Great Britain. She attended secondary school at the American British Academy in Muscat, Oman, and graduated from the London Academy ...
26. Clare Calbraith
Actress | Grace
Clare Calbraith was born in Cheshire to mother Val. She has two sisters and a brother. After studying Law, she went to drama school in Cardiff. Her first major role was in Heartbeat from 2000-2002 and her recent appearances include roles in the ITV period drama series Home Fires, Downton Abbey and ...
27. Susannah Harker
Actress | House of Cards
Susannah Harker was born on April 26, 1965 in London, England, UK. She is an actress and director, known for House of Cards (1990), Everything I Ever Wanted to Tell My Daughter About Men (2021) and A Dry White Season (1989). She was previously married to Iain Glen.
28. Jennifer Ehle
Actress | Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Anne Ehle is an American actress, the daughter of English actress Rosemary Harris and American author John Ehle. She won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for her role as Elizabeth Bennet in the 1995 BBC miniseries Pride and Prejudice. For her work on Broadway, she won the 2000 Tony ...
29. Alison Steadman
Actress | Life Is Sweet
The acclaimed Alison Steadman was born in 1946 in Liverpool, the daughter of George Percival Steadman and Marjorie Evans. Educated at Childwall Valley High School, she studied at the East-15 Acting School from 1966-1969, then toiled as a secretary at the Liverpool Probation Service before deciding ...
30. Benjamin Whitrow
Actor | Chicken Run
Benjamin Whitrow was a softly-spoken, RADA-trained English actor who performed on stage from 1959. He worked for seven years in the 1960s under the direction of Laurence Olivier at the National Theatre. He was also a prolific actor on screen, usually seen in avuncular roles. He is probably best ...
31. Crispin Bonham-Carter
Actor | Casino Royale
Crispin Daniel Bonham-Carter is an English actor and theatre director.
He played Mr. Bingley in BBC's Pride and Prejudice in 1995. The previous year, he had starred in the TV sitcom Honey for Tea. Bonham-Carter also starred alongside Ewan McGregor in the 1993 BBC period drama Scarlet and Black ...
32. Anna Chancellor
Actress | The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
A familiar face on television and film, Anna Chancellor is perhaps best known for her unforgettable role as Henrietta (Duckface) in the hit British film "Four Weddings and a Funeral." Her TV credits include Lix Storm in the Emmy award-winning miniseries "The Hour;" "Fleming: The Man Who Would Be ...
33. Adrian Lukis
Actor | Judy
Adrian Lukis was born in 1958 in Birmingham, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Judy (2019), Pride and Prejudice (1995) and Back Home (2001). He has been married to Michele L Costa since November 1985. They have one child.
34. David Bamber
Actor | Valkyrie
David Bamber was born on September 19, 1954 in Manchester, Lancashire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Valkyrie (2008), Miss Potter (2006) and The Bourne Identity (2002). He has been married to Julia Swift since July 1982. They have two children.
35. Lucy Scott
Actress | Pride and Prejudice
Lucy Scott was born in 1966. She is an actress, known for Pride and Prejudice (1995), MI-5 (2002) and The Inspector Lynley Mysteries (2001). She is married to Alistair Petrie. They have three children.
36. Emilia Fox
Actress | The Pianist
Emilia Rose Elizabeth Fox is an English actress and presenter whose film debut was in Roman Polanski's film The Pianist. Her other films include the Italian-French-British romance-drama film The Soul Keeper (2002), for which she won the Flaiano Film Award for Best Actress; the drama film The ...
37. Rupert Vansittart
Actor | Braveheart
Rupert Nicholas Vansittart is an English character actor. He has appeared in a variety of roles in film, television, stage and radio, often playing comic characters. He is best known for his role as Lord Ashfordly in the ITV drama Heartbeat and for playing Lord Yohn Royce in the HBO series Game of ...
38. James Fleet
Actor | Four Weddings and a Funeral
James Fleet was born on March 11, 1952 in Bilston, Staffordshire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), The Phantom of the Opera (2004) and Sense and Sensibility (1995). He has been married to Jane Booker since 1984. They have one child.
39. Simon Callow
Actor | Four Weddings and a Funeral
Simon Callow was born on June 13, 1949 in London, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Shakespeare in Love (1998) and A Room with a View (1985). He has been married to Sebastian Fox since June 2016.
40. John Hannah
Actor | Four Weddings and a Funeral
John Hannah is the youngest child of his family, having two older sisters. Before he decided on a career as an actor, John was an apprentice electrician for four years. He gave up his work as an electrician after being accepted to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. After ...
41. Kristin Scott Thomas
Actress | Gosford Park
The acclaimed Cornish actress Dame Kristin Scott Thomas was born in Redruth, Cornwall, to Deborah (Hurlbatt) and Lieutenant Commander Simon Scott Thomas. Her father was a pilot for the British Royal Navy and died in a flying accident in 1964. Her stepfather, Lt. Cdr Simon Idiens, was also a pilot, ...
42. Nicola Walker
Actress | Spooks
Nicola Jane Walker is an English actress, known for her starring roles in various British television programs from the 1990s onward, including that of Ruth Evershed in the spy drama Spooks from 2003 to 2011 and DCI Cassie Stuart in Unforgotten from 2015 to 2021. She has also worked in theatre, ...
43. David Haig
Actor | My Boy Jack
David Haig was born on September 20, 1955 in Aldershot, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for My Boy Jack (2007), Two Weeks Notice (2002) and Florence Foster Jenkins (2016). He has been married to Jane Galloway since 2010. They have five children.
44. Sophie Thompson
Actress | Gosford Park
Sophie Thompson is a British actress who has worked in film, television and theatre. A six-time Olivier Award nominee, she won the 1999 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the London revival of Into the Woods. Her other nominations were for Wildest Dreams (1994), Company (1996), ...
45. Corin Redgrave
Actor | A Man for All Seasons
Corin Redgrave, a towering, award-winning force on the British stage but a lesser universally recognized third-generation scion of the acting dynasty, was the reddish-haired middle brother of his more internationally famous sisters, Vanessa Redgrave and Lynn Redgrave who achieved widespread ...
46. Richard McCabe
Actor | The Constant Gardener
Richard McCabe was born on August 18, 1960 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He is an actor, known for The Constant Gardener (2005), Eye in the Sky (2015) and Notting Hill (1999).
47. John Shrapnel
Actor | Notting Hill
John Shrapnel was born in Birmingham, the son of Norman and Myfanwy Shrapnel. He was brought up in Stockport and south London, attending City of London School and Cambridge University. He was an original member of the National Youth Theatre and had worked extensively in theatre, particularly the ...
48. Tim McInnerny
Actor | Notting Hill
Tim McInnerny is an English actor. He is known for his many roles on stage and television, including as Lord Percy Percy and Captain Darling in the 1980s British sitcom Blackadder. McInnerny was born on 18 September 1956 in Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire, the son of Mary Joan (née Gibbings) and William ...
49. Gina McKee
Actress | Notting Hill
She was born in Sunderland but raised just down the coast in Peterlee where she was educated at Peterlee Comprehensive. At 14 she joined the local drama group which led to a part in the children's tv series 'Quest of Eagles' and appeared in some television commercials including one as a shop ...
50. Sanjeev Bhaskar
Actor | Yesterday
Sanjeev Bhaskar was born on October 31, 1963 in Ealing, London, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Yesterday (2019), The Kumars at No. 42 (2001) and Absolutely Anything (2015). He has been married to Meera Syal since January 21, 2005. They have one child.
51. Samuel West
Actor | Howards End
Samuel West was born on June 19, 1966 in Hammersmith, London, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Howards End (1992), Van Helsing (2004) and Notting Hill (1999).
52. John Woodvine
Actor | An American Werewolf in London
Born in the Simonside area of South Shields, he left the North East when he was five, but went back for holidays with his grandparents. As he grew older he had it in his mind to be an actor, but had no idea how to go about it, so did various jobs before being called up for National Service in the ...
53. Phoebe Nicholls
Actress | The Elephant Man
She has worked extensively in the theatre since making her debut in Whose Life is it Anyway with Tom Conti. At the National Theatre she performed in Pravda with Anthony Hopkins and played Sheila Birling in Stephen Daldry's revision of An Inspector Calls. At the Royal Court in London she created the...
54. Judy Cornwell
Actress | Santa Claus: The Movie
Most famous for her supporting role as Daisy, the sister of Patricia Routledge's Hyacinth Bucket in the hugely popular BBC sitcom Keeping Up Appearances (1990), Judy Cornwell's grandmother was the music hall singer Sarah Bonner. The London-born actress grew up in England, where she attended a ...
55. Simon Russell Beale
Actor | The Death of Stalin
Simon Russell Beale is one of the most popular and critically acclaimed talents in British theatre.
He spent his early years abroad as his father was Surgeon General to the British Army (his mother is also a doctor), but aged 8 was relocated to England and became a pupil at St Paul's Cathedral ...
56. Felicity Dean
Actress | The Wedding Video
Felicity Dean was born in London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for The Wedding Video (2012) and Elizabeth I (2017). She has been married to Paul Vigrass since November 21, 2021. They have one child.
57. Martin Compston
Actor | A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
Martin Compston grew up in Greenock, Inverclyde, Renfrewshire. He spent his teen years going to see soccer (football) team Celtic with his brother Barry and dreamed one day he would play for them. He attended St. Columba's High School in Gourock, Inverclyde, where he passed through his Standard ...
58. Judy Parfitt
Actress | Girl with a Pearl Earring
Of regal bearing and imposing stance, flame-haired British classical actress Judy Parfitt is the possessor of the chilliest blue orbs in all of London and has used them to her advantage over the years with her clever portrayals of haughty, bossy, imperious, deliciously malevolent patricians. Born ...
59. Julia McKenzie
Actress | Notes on a Scandal
Julia McKenzie was born on February 17, 1941 in Enfield, Middlesex, England, UK. She is an actress and writer, known for Notes on a Scandal (2006), Bright Young Things (2003) and Cranford (2007). She was previously married to Jerry Harte.
60. Clive Swift
Actor | Excalibur
Clive Swift was born on February 9, 1936 in Liverpool, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Excalibur (1981), Frenzy (1972) and Keeping Up Appearances (1990). He was married to Margaret Drabble. He died on February 1, 2019 in London, England, UK.
61. Geoffrey Palmer
Actor | Tomorrow Never Dies
Lugubrious-faced English actor Geoffrey Palmer was born in London, the son of a chartered accountant. After leaving school, he did his national service with the Royal Marines where he became a field training and small arms instructor. He then briefly tried his hand at accountancy before his ...
62. Joanna Lumley
Actress | Absolutely Fabulous
Joanna Lumley was born on 1 May, 1946 in Kashmir, India, to British parents, Thya Beatrice Rose (Weir) and James Rutherford Lumley. Her father was a major in the Gurkha Rifles, and she spent most of her early childhood in the Far East where her father was posted.
An aspiring actress, she first came ...
63. Jack Davenport
Actor | Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Jack Davenport was born in 1973 and is the son of actors Maria Aitken and Nigel Davenport. He studied Literature and Film Studies at the University of East Anglia. His first break happened after he wrote to John Cleese to ask to be a runner on Fierce Creatures (1997) where he ended up playing a zoo...
64. Sarah Alexander
Actress | Stardust
Sarah Alexander was born on January 3, 1971 in London, England, UK. She is an actress and writer, known for Stardust (2007), Green Wing (2004) and Coupling (2000). She is married to Peter Serafinowicz. They have two children.
65. Ben Miles
Actor | Andor
Ben Miles was born on September 29, 1966 in Wimbledon, London, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Andor (2022), The Capture (2019) and Red Joan (2018). He is married to Emily Raymond. They have three children.
66. Anna Maxwell Martin
Actress | Becoming Jane
The striking actress Anna Maxwell-Martin is a rising star on both stage and screen. Anna had dreamed all her life of becoming an actress even though her family had no background in the arts. She starred in school plays and an acclaimed production of "Breezeblock Park" in the role of Betty.
At the ...
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